The Symposium was a wonderful opportunity for me to visit Sweden for the first time. It was held at Bergby Gard in a very peaceful country setting, so very conducive to learning and sharing ideas and plenty of conversation!
There were three other tutors, all equally passionate about textiles, hand stitching and embroidery in particular.
My course was called Inspirations from African Textiles, so we worked from a selection of African textiles from my own collection. Developing ideas is so much more exciting and inspirational when there is the opportunity to handle and examine authentic examples. I discover more about them each time, even though I’ve written books and studied the subject so often with students.
I worked with two groups and we concentrated on learning and experimenting with traditional African needlework techniques. First we learnt the joining techniques and then experimented with some innovative ideas.

Mary working with Hanna

I was introduced to wrist warmers, a necessary fashion accessory in cold climates. What a wonderful idea they are and why don’t we have them in England?

I learnt a new technique for creating interesting seams. Here is Berit showing me the seam, skarvsöm, in Swedish.

Berit showing me the method of sewing the seam

Here are some of the students’ samples showing ideas in progress during the workshop.